1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a setting apparatus for displacing push elements in a sign display module, with the push elements each being held in display ducts of the sign display module and being displaceable from a first position in which the face surfaces of the push elements are visible on a display surface of the sign display module to a second position in which said face surfaces are arranged substantially in a non-visible way at a distance behind the display surface in the sign display module.
2. The Prior Art
The attachment of letterings such as prices, descriptions, notes, technical specifications or the like to merchandise is of particular importance nowadays. Consumers are becoming more and more demanding and wish to be informed as precisely as possible about the products that they wish to purchase. Thus it is important for the consumer to obtain information for example about the exact price, the material and the technical data of the product on the one hand, and it offers the vendor or seller of the products the advantage on the other hand that the consumer feels well-informed for the moment without any additional advice having to be given.
It is therefore certainly common practice all over the world to provide the exhibited goods in a shop display or sales locations with price tags or other kinds of lettering. The consumer can thus determine in a very simple manner in passing whether the price/performance ratio concerning specific merchandise is grounds for purchasing the article or not.
The apparatuses generally used for displaying the price are usually small rails in which individual letters or numbers printed on small plates are inserted. It is further also common practice to print price labels on paper and to attach the same to film disposed on the merchandise.
A disadvantage of these apparatuses according to the state of the art is that in the case of the rail system the vendor of the goods who wishes to mark the same with prices or other data needs to go to the respective goods with a storage box of signs (letters, numbers or symbols) in order to compose the various prices laboriously in a puzzle-like manner from the individual parts. There is a high likelihood that a number of the individual parts have already been lost or that especially the number or letter which is necessary for the price or desired text to be composed is not present because all of these numbers/letters have already been used for other goods. Generally it can be said that the vendor must always ensure that a sufficient number of individual blocks with letters, numbers or symbols are available, as otherwise a marking of the goods with the desired price or text is not possible.
The use of printed price or information labels has the disadvantage that they need to be printed first by means of suitable printing technique, must then be transported to the respective goods and must be inserted there in a sleeve. If the price labeling is wrong, the wrong label can only be replaced after a renewed printout of the label, which might possibly occur at a different location. An additional factor is that any change in the price requires the discarding of the old price tag. Especially in the case of a large number of articles the tagging of prices is thus a cumbersome task.
In order to make the mosaic-like composition of desired labels and the preparation of separately printed labels superfluous, a sign display module has already been proposed in WO 2005/043495 A1, with which all signs relevant for a specific field of application such as the numbers 0 to 9 and all special and currency signs can be displayed. The sign display module is provided with openings or display ducts which are arranged in a matrix-like manner, in which displaceable push elements are held. In order to enable changing the signs displayed on the sign display module, a setting apparatus with a receptacle for the signal display module is used, by means of which the push elements held in the sign display module can be displaced for the purpose of displaying of the sign to be displayed from a first position in which the face surfaces of the push elements are visible on a display surface of the sign display module to a second position in which said face surfaces are arranged in a substantially non-visible way at a distance behind the display surface in the sign display module.
The setting apparatus comprises grip strips plus setting templates which are provided with setting pins which are arranged in a matrix-like manner and which can be inserted into the display ducts of the sign display module by moving the grip strips towards one another. Since corresponding groups of setting pins are provided on the setting templates for each character to be displayed, the push elements can be conveyed by the associated setting pins to a desired end position for the purpose of displaying the desired sign.
It has proven to be limiting in this known setting apparatus that before or after the insertion of the sign display module into the receptacle all signs present on a sign display module need to be predetermined by means of the setting template, which also applies to the case that merely one sign of several needs to be changed. A further limitation is the fact that merely sign display modules of predetermined length or with a predetermined number of signs to be displayed can be inserted into the receptacle and therefore the sign display modules need to be adjusted to the receptacle relating to their length.
The displacement of the setting templates before each setting process has proven in practice to be time-consuming.